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Green building design criteria emphasizes the energy-efficient performance of fenestration materials and maximum
use of natural daylight. Given this background, Glass is an indispensable material for green building. It has a wide
range of functional benefits. Its transparency allows day-lighting of the interiors and integrates the interiors with the
exteriors. Studies have proven time and again that this substantially improves the productivity and health of the
occupants of the building.
Glass is completely recyclable and non-toxic in nature. It satisfies all the ecological parameters of being the most
sought after “green” building material in Green Buildings. Moreover it harmonizes a structure with its environment.
Glass has varied “Green” benefits of which, some of them are:
?Day-lighting - The use of glass brings in lot of light that helps in giving a high amount of natural day lighting instead
of depending solely on artificial lighting thus reducing considerably electricity consumption.
?Blending interiors with exteriors (Views) - Glass facades give a spectacular view of the outside world from the cozy
interiors.
?Recyclability - Glass being recyclable satisfies the important parameter of being a “Green” building material.
?Achieving energy efficiency - High performance glass helps in controlling the solar and thermal heat in the interiors
and helps to maintain the temperature at its minimum best and in turn helps to tone down the air-conditioning
expenses.
?Innovative application - Being very flexible building material glass helps to satisfy and capture an architect's
utmost imagination in its shape and form.
?Controls noise: Double glazed glass facades help in achieving a high degree of acoustic comfort by keeping away
noise penetrating from the exteriors to the interiors thus ensuring a calmer atmosphere inside.
?Self Cleaning: The future belongs to self-cleaning glass which keeps itself clean on its own and brings out an ever
sparkling effect.
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green
Building Council (USGBC), provides a suite of standards for environmentally sustainable construction.
The LEED rating system for Green buildings has six major areas of which four have the potential to be tapped through
appropriate usage of High Performance Glass in design:
?Sustainable sites
?Water efficiency
?Energy and atmosphere
?Materials and resources
?Indoor environmental quality
?Innovation and design process
Glass and LEED Rating
Role of Glass in Green Architecture
High Performance
Glass Impact
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ENERGY & ATMOSPHERE (EA)
Optimize Energy Performance
MATERIALS & RESOURCES (MR)
Regional Materials
INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY (EQ)
Daylight and Views
INNOVATION & DESIGN PROCESS (ID)
Innovation in Design
Choosing Glass
PERFORMANCE CRITERIA
Optimum Light Transmission (LT)
The building facade, windows, doors, and skylights can be designed with high performance glass to meet the desired
solar heat gain coefficient and U-value requirements. The use of glass can let in adequate daylight resulting in
reduction of artificial lighting costs. A complete energy simulation for the building is possible nowadays and helps to
improve the energy performance of the design.
The distance from the glass manufacturing/fabrication facility to the job site (within 500 miles radius) is a major
factor in gaining points under the Regional Materials Credit. The wide network of Saint-Gobain Glass' processors and
fabricators helps under this category.
High Performance glass from Saint-Gobain helps to blend the twin actions of achieving desired levels of daylight and
transparency to enable external views. The letting in of natural light helps cut down on the artificial lighting costs. .
Saint-Gobain Glass addresses needs such as Acoustic Insulation, Self-cleaning etc apart from the prescribed
requirements of Energy Efficiency, Recyclability and Day-lighting. High performance glass when used in Double Glazed
panels or as Laminated units provide higher degree of Acoustic Insulation that ward off unwanted noise from the
external atmosphere. Saint-Gobain also offers Self-cleaning glass that can keep itself clean without any maintenance
hassles.
Thus the overall innovative use of High Performance Glass from Saint-Gobain in a building can fetch upto 13% of the
overall points in the LEED Rating system.
In tropical countries like India, one needs to be careful in selecting the right glass solution. Selecting the right kind of
product is critical in maximizing the benefits possible from glass.
Broadly glass can be chosen according to the performance needs and the aesthetic needs. For a Green Building it is
important to choose a glass solution that gives high performance without compromising on aesthetics.
As India is a tropical climate, we have abundant sunlight. Ironically the bill on artificial lighting contributes 20% to the
total spend on electricity. The facts in reality are :
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?
?The lux level in shade is around 9,000 Lux.
?Brightly lit interiors which are conducive for working require 500 Lux.
High Performance Glass helps in cutting down excessive glare and brings in abundant natural light thus reducing the
dependence on artificial lighting.
In climatic conditions like India, 80% of the total heat gain is due to direct solar radiation and the rest is due to
temperature difference between the exteriors and interiors. Thus to reduce the overall Relative Heat Gain (RHG) in
tropical climates, it becomes necessary to curtail the incoming solar radiation by the use of glass with highperformance solar “control” coating. Contrary to this, in cold climates the emphasis is on glass with low-emissive
coatings to reduce the rate of heat loss from interiors to exteriors.
The total heat gain is measured in terms of Solar Factor and U-value and is expressed as a sum of these two
components.
Heat gain on the inside of the building due to direct solar radiation incident on glass is measured through the solar
factor of glass.
Solar Factor: It is the sum of percentage of incident solar energy directly transmitted and incident solar energy
absorbed and re-emitted inside.
Solar factor : (b+e)/a
Heat gain due to temperature difference is expressed by U-Value of a glass.
The lux level from direct sunlight is around 1,13,000 Lux.
Energy Efficiency
Solar Factor :
U-Value
OU-Value: It is the amount of heat transferred(lost/gain),due to a temperature differential of 1 C between inside and
outside per square meter.
Role of Glass in Green Architecture
1# 2#
directly
transmitted
energy
incident
solar radiation
(a)
(c)
(d)
(b)
(e)
reflected
energy
re-
energy
emitted
re-
energy
emitted
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The best energy performance is obtained from a glass solution which is lower in terms of Solar factor and the U-value.
Thus the best option for tropical climates, is to use glass with high performance solar control coatings double glazed
with low-emissive glass to reduce the overall heat gain.
The High Performance Energy efficient glass solutions from Saint-Gobain have also been categorized under the
various Houses of Color to enable comparison of the products based on aesthetic considerations.
The Houses of Color are:
1. Neutrals
2. Metals
3. Blues4. Greens
5. Blue-Green
Shortly, India would have stringent regulations to conserve energy by way of the Energy Conservation Building Code
(ECBC) that would impact upcoming buildings and buildings going in for renovation. Saint-Gobain Glass has a wide
range of ECBC Compliant products.
AESTHETIC NEEDS
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Green Buildings by Saint-Gobain Glass
Design Intent :Overall energy efficiency of
the façade with optimum
l i g h t t r a n s m i s s i o n w a s
required. Particularly on the
Northern side, the glass
solution was required to give a
higher light transmission due
to the orientation of the
building and at the same time
control the temperature
difference.
Olympia Tech Park, Chennai
Design Intent:
Glass Solution Used :
Relative Heat Gain (RHG) of
lesser than 150 W with Solar
Factor and U-Value lower than
0 . 2 0 a n d 1 . 7 W / s q m
respectively was required
from the glass solution.
SGG Cool-Lite Titanium Blue
double glazed with SGG
Planitherm Pristine White to
give a very low solar factor of
0.15 and U-value of 1.5 W/sqm
resulting in an overall RHG of
130 W was specified and used
for the Green Building.
Novel Architectural design
r e s u l t e d i n i n c r e a s e d
daylighting and blending
interiors with the exteriors.
I T C
G r e e n
C e n t e r , G u r g a o n
Glass Solution Used :
SGG Cool-Lite Turquoise double glazed with SGG Ekologik was specified and glazed to give a very low solar
factor and U-value to provide an energy efficient solution with optimum light transmission.
Specifically for the northern side of the facade SGG Parsol Green double glazed with SGG Ekologik was used
to enable higher light transmission and at the same time provide the required U-value to maintain thetemperature differential from the interiors to the exteriors.
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Grundfos Pumps, Chennai
Design Intent:
Glass solution used:
Maximum daylighting was
intended without depending on
artificial lighting. An energy
efficient skylight was called for
which could let in natural light
and at the same time cut down
the he a t a nd re duc e a i r -
conditioning expenses. Moreover
the external views needed to
form at least 90% of the occupied
areas.
SGG Antelio Plus Emerald Glaze
was used for the energy efficient
skylight that allows abundant
building the glass was procured locally. This gives 1
point on the rating scale.b.Glass has 15% recycle content plus it is 100%
recyclable. Recycle content has 2 points and Wipro got
both.
3. By reducing energy requirement of the building by
50% on the base case, Wipro could get 10 points.
Wipro Technologies reduces 51% energy on the base case.
They opted for high performance glass which reduced
the energy requirement by 5.6%.
Summing up, in the case of Wirpo Technologies, glass
contributed 2 clear points and 13 combined points.
Wipro Technologies Gurgaon Development Centre is the
greenest building in India and second greenest building
in the world. The building has received 57 points and is
Platinum rated.
Wipro Technologies, Gurgaon is designed by the eminent
architectural firm, M/s Vidhur Bharadwaj & Associates
from Delhi.
Plot size: 1.12 Acre
Building floor space: 175,000 sqft (incl of basement)
Glass had contributed the following valuable points on
LEED Rating:
1. More than 90% of the occupants in Wipro
Technologies building, get daylight and views of the
outside which gave the building 2 points in IndoorEnvironment Quality.
2. As per green building norm of Material & Resources:
a.20% of the total material should be locally
manufactured. In the case of Wipro Technologies
Demographics:
Benefit from proper use of glass:
natural light to the interiors and
cuts down the heat. This resulted
i n a b s ol ute non-us a ge of
artificial lighting for the office
spaces for the entire part of the
d a y . T h e a i r - c o n d i t i o n i n gexpenses also have been kept at
their minimal best due to the
energy efficient glazing. The
external views now form at least
95% of the regularly occupied
areas.
This green building consumes
25% less energy, compared to
c o n v e n t i o n a l b u i l d i n g b y
adopting above measures.
Wipro Technologies, Gurgaon
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